This year the Alfred P. Sloan award, which is bestowed on “a feature film focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer or mathematician as a major character,” went this year to Alex Rivera’s SLEEP DEALER. The jury – which included filmmaker Michael Polish, technology writer Evan I. Schwartz [www.harpercollins.com], Benedict Schwegler (chief scientist of Walt Disney Imagineering), John Underkoffler (Oblong Industries), and Alan Alda –– recognized the film “for its visionary and humane tale of a young man grappling with a technological future in which neural implants, telerobotics and ubiquitous computing serve a global economy rife with fundamental challenges and opportunities, and for its powerful and original storytelling and direction.”